Marketing Intelligence

Unit 17

Gathering Information

Prof. Chris Hudson

Marketing Intelligence

Stages: Business Decision Making Process

Identifying the need or a problem: Markets are continuously evolving and businesses are daily facing with different needs for the products or services. Problems are identified internally.

Developing a product Specification: this deals with the solution of the problem. The need identified should be satisfied as well. The specifications of the product will be identified and research will be carried out in order to find out the right product for the identified problem or need. Special attention will be paid to advertising and other sources of information to find out the product which matches the specification

Searching for products and suppliers: The supplier will be searched through advertising the required product. The advertisement will attract suppliers who will be ready to render the services for selling the product to the business.

Evaluation of products and suppliers: Businesses will be evaluating suppliers after receiving price and product quotes from them. The suppliers with best products and reasonable prices will be selected for future references regarding product purchases.

Ready to place an order: At this point the business finally asks the supplier to supply the required product at the agreed price.

Evaluation of product and supplier performance: After placing an order the business evaluate the performance of suppliers. Timely delivery, faultless product and after sales service are the factors on which the performance is evaluated.

Follow on Purchase: If a supplier evaluation is excellent then it would be definitely considered for future purchases because every time businesses cannot search for new suppliers as it involves costs (CIM, 2012).

Business buying stages consist of formalized systems. The information flows through several different stages inside the business in order for approval and recommendation. The processes within the organization make the buying process more complex. The policies of every company are different and suppliers cannot have a consistent relation with most of the companies as their policies are ever-changing and supplier has to comply with that every time (Jakkola, 2007, p. 95-96).

Stages: Consumer Decision Making Process

The consumer identifies a need: Consumer looks out for new trends of fashion in the market and identifies which he/she likes the most and what could be potential purchase.

Looking for information: Consumer looks for information about the product which has been identified as the potential need. The information is obtained from various sources including advertisements and peers.

Evaluating alternatives: after identifying the needs and gathering the required information consumer evaluates the alternative choices available in the market. It could be type of material, variety, colors and sizes.

Final Purchase: When customer has exhausted all the possibilities he/she makes the final purchase decision

Using the product: The product should be fulfilling the expectations of the customers or else cognitive dissonance occurs which means that the decision taken was not appropriate (CIM, 2012).

Consumer buying stages are much simpler than that of business buying stages. The effort is made by the consumer in evaluating the alternatives and then selecting the ...